“Years later, many years later, the nightmares began...”
-Joe O'Donnell, military photographer
of the occupation forces
At the edge of the cremation pit
the boy waits as if
at attention for men in white
to loosen the rope
that binds his lifeless
infant brother to his back.
The boy stares into smoke and ash,
his eyes reveal
what anyone might imagine –
how far, how long
this journey, the heat
of that pit. The boy
turning, then walking away.
What might happen
later. Any bearable aftermath.
Michael Carrino holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College. He is a retired English lecturer at the SUNY Plattsburgh, where he was co-founder/poetry editor of the Saranac Review. His publications include Some Rescues (New Poets Series, Inc.), Under This Combustible Sky (Mellen Poetry Press), Café Sonata (Brown Pepper Press), Autumn’s Return to the Maple Pavilion (Conestoga Press), By Available Light (Guernica Editions), Always Close, Forever Careless (Kelsay Books), and Until I’ve Forgotten, Until I’m Stunned (Kelsay Books) as well as individual poems in numerous journals and reviews.